It is accepted that the spirit level (niveau à bulle d'air) was invented by Melchisedech Thevenot (1620 - 1692) some time before February 2, 1661. However, some people interpret a 1558 text, referring to an insect, as mentioning a spirit level more than one hundred years before it was created by Thevenot...
A 1558 French text describing a spirit level more than 100 years before it was invented?!
Histoire entière des poissons, Guillaume Rondelet, 1558
Plumb bob level [fil à plomb, plomb, niveau à]
Do you, as a native French speaker, consider that the text talks about a spirit level or does the paragraph refer to a plumb bob level, a tool invented in antiquity?